U.N.: Isolated Angolan town sees 10 deaths a day

LUANDA, Angola (Reuters) -- A humanitarian disaster is unfolding in the isolated Angolan town of Luau where at least 10 people, mostly children, are starving to death every day, the United Nations said on Friday.

"I wish to convey our serious distress at the humanitarian crisis and to confirm that we will support the government's efforts in all possible ways," U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator Zoraida Mesa said in a statement.

The statement called the situation in the eastern town "alarming," saying the "dramatic increase in mortality rates requires urgent intervention with life-saving assistance."

"Children are dying at the rate of seven to eight each day and three to four adults are dying each day," the statement added. It attributed the deaths to malnutrition.

Angola's 12 million people have suffered a brutal 25-year civil war that pits the Luanda government against the rebel UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) led by veteran guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi.

Despite its vast offshore oil reserves and diamond mines, Angola cannot feed itself and millions have been displaced by the fighting.

Luau, with a population of 9,000 people, lies in the eastern Moxico province near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The town's population is rising daily because of an influx of people fleeing conflict in neighboring Lunda Sul province, where government forces and UNITA rebels are fighting, and other refugees fleeing the separate conflict in the Congo.

Aid agencies based in the provincial capital Luena have been unable to reach Luau, some 350 km (210 miles) to the northeast, because of the poor security situation in the area.

"Medicine, food and other supplies are urgently needed to halt the tragedy," the United Nations said.

UNITA has been battling Luanda since independence in 1975. About one million people have been killed, millions uprooted from their homes and others forced to flee into exile.

Huge oil revenues fuel the government war machine while illegal diamond sales continue to stock UNITA with supplies despite the increasing bite of international sanctions.

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